Dahdo's '46 CJ-2A "Harry"

@scramboleer & @Pete can ya move the Mt. St. Helen's comments to the Garage area ? Sorry @Dahdo!! Les
Ya know that might not be a bad idea. I kind of thought Harry's Mt. St Helen's survival story might be of more general interest than my build thread. I almost put it in the garage in the first place.
 
I guess I'm not done. ;)
Sorry, I meant the Washington Scablands. But the S. Dakota Badlands and Grand Canyon were most likely formed all at the same time.
Around 12,500 years ago some scientist believe that comet fragments hit the Ice Age Ice Shelf and caused rapid melting and massive flooding all across the US. This event is known as the Younger Dryas Event.
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I guess I'm not done. ;)
Sorry, I meant the Washington Scablands. But the S. Dakota Badlands and Grand Canyon were most likely formed all at the same time.
Around 12,500 years ago some scientist believe that comet fragments hit the Ice Age Ice Shelf and caused rapid melting and massive flooding all across the US. This event is known as the Younger Dryas Event.
View attachment 134405

The predominant theory and one that took decades for many geologists to accept (the advent of aerial photography was key) is that an ice dam formed at the end of the Pleistocene and blocked the Clark Fork River, in western Montana. This created a massive lake and when the dam broke the lake caused the catastrophic flood the formed the channeled scablands of eastern Washington. It also dumped a lot of sediment in the Portland basin and and the Willamette Valley as the flood waters slowed. Large chunks of glacial ice came along and rafted in car sized boulders from Montana that looks a little out of place on our Oregon hillsides. One theory even proposes that the Willamette Meteorite actually fell into glacial ice in Montana and was rafted to Oregon where it was discovered (not more than 2 miles from my house!). So, maybe that's where this Younger Dryas idea came from? Sediment records in the Willamette Valley show that there was not just one flood event-- this process repeated at least 30 times, and maybe as many as 100 times over a period of 3,000 years. Wild times.

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The hillsides around Missoula show signs of lake beach erosion. My geology instructor in college studied in Missoula. Theory is that area was where the ice dams formed. I've hiked some of the scablands on field trips, neat area (cept for the rattlesnakes). Les
 
Back to Harry!

After months under the hood, then the last few weeks on the brakes, I finally started draining the diffs and and transmission & xfer case. The rear diff drained about cup of clear water before the green goop. I popped the cover off and started scooping sludge with a putty knife, then sprayed in some brake cleaner and let that drain and evaporate. Good news is there isn't any rust to speak of. I put the cover on with a a few bolts, no gasket, and pumped in a quart of cheap oil to hopefully loosen more sludge. I'll drain that tomorrow and try and wipe out whatever goop I can before closing it up with a fresh gasket and filling with fresh GL4. I'll drive it a couple of hundred miles and change it out again.

The front diff didn't have any water, but the oil was thick, dark and tarry. I gave it the same treatment as the rear and will change it again after a couple of hundred miles.

Drained the tranny and just dark oil, no water. But a big glob of goop was peeking out the drain hole and nearly blocking it by the time the oil stopped flowing. I scooped a sample and dissolved it with some kerosene, then dipped my magnet in the liquid and sure enough, lots of fine metallic dust in the goop. I don't imagine this is unusual, but I decided to pull the top off to inspect the guts.

Well, I learned one thing--no one had accessed the top of the tranny since May 18, 1980. Unless you count the mice who built a nest in the middle of the crusty mud from the Mt. St. Helens mud flow that Harry was caught in.
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This made me a little nervous about what I might find under the cover.
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But to my untrained eye, it looks pretty good. No rust at least. How do the gears look to you guys?

There was some gunk on the side walls where there is a shelf above the drain hole, and of course a lot of gunk on the bottom. I put the drain plug in, sprayed some kerosene on the walls and poured in about a pint, let it sit for a couple of hours then drained it and flushed it with clean 30 wt. The majority of the gunk seems to have come out. The xfer case is draining now. My plan is to refill with GL4 and get it on the road. Should I change again soon like with the diffs?
 
Compared against my 1st gear pics, yours look great. There's always the chance that a synch gear retainer or shim wore out / broke, but if no lg PCs on the drained fluid, your assessment looks good...BUT...where I screwed up is not refurbishing the top end - shift rail - retainer springs primarily - which caused me a lot of heartburn and a 3td time dropping the tranny ( my remodel does not allow for top shifter plate removal by itself ), so consider checking those shift rails, retainer ball bearings, and definitely replace the worn out springs!
 
Back to Harry!

After months under the hood, then the last few weeks on the brakes, I finally started draining the diffs and and transmission & xfer case. The rear diff drained about cup of clear water before the green goop. I popped the cover off and started scooping sludge with a putty knife, then sprayed in some brake cleaner and let that drain and evaporate. Good news is there isn't any rust to speak of. I put the cover on with a a few bolts, no gasket, and pumped in a quart of cheap oil to hopefully loosen more sludge. I'll drain that tomorrow and try and wipe out whatever goop I can before closing it up with a fresh gasket and filling with fresh GL4. I'll drive it a couple of hundred miles and change it out again.

The front diff didn't have any water, but the oil was thick, dark and tarry. I gave it the same treatment as the rear and will change it again after a couple of hundred miles.

Drained the tranny and just dark oil, no water. But a big glob of goop was peeking out the drain hole and nearly blocking it by the time the oil stopped flowing. I scooped a sample and dissolved it with some kerosene, then dipped my magnet in the liquid and sure enough, lots of fine metallic dust in the goop. I don't imagine this is unusual, but I decided to pull the top off to inspect the guts.

Well, I learned one thing--no one had accessed the top of the tranny since May 18, 1980. Unless you count the mice who built a nest in the middle of the crusty mud from the Mt. St. Helens mud flow that Harry was caught in.
View attachment 135690
This made me a little nervous about what I might find under the cover.
View attachment 135691
But to my untrained eye, it looks pretty good. No rust at least. How do the gears look to you guys?

There was some gunk on the side walls where there is a shelf above the drain hole, and of course a lot of gunk on the bottom. I put the drain plug in, sprayed some kerosene on the walls and poured in about a pint, let it sit for a couple of hours then drained it and flushed it with clean 30 wt. The majority of the gunk seems to have come out. The xfer case is draining now. My plan is to refill with GL4 and get it on the road. Should I change again soon like with the diffs?
Hey Dave. No expert but these look a little suspect. F58BC708-BC2F-4D3F-8D1F-CDA82FB734D7.jpeg
 
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My fresh 1st gear install comparison...ya gotta lot of " grind " left on yours

Serious tho, if no sharp edges or breaks, looks like normal wear IMO, and some replacement gears ( metals ) are suspect, as we have learned. As always, roll the dice...rebuild or use as is???
 
Hey Dave. No expert but these look a little suspect. View attachment 135699
Your right Jim. That would explsin the magnetic sludge on the bottom of the case. Now tge the question is, what else might be wrong, can i drive it as is without destroying anything, at least this spring/summer, then tear it down next fall.
 
View attachment 135715
My fresh 1st gear install comparison...ya gotta lot of " grind " left on yours

Serious tho, if no sharp edges or breaks, looks like normal wear IMO, and some replacement gears ( metals ) are suspect, as we have learned. As always, roll the dice...rebuild or use as is???
Thanks Doug. Im leaning toward getting it on the road and see where things stand. Unless someome sees a potential for catastrophic failure, read breaking things that you don't want to break, I think ill button it up and try it.
 
Pete, real quick, whats different about a T90-C?
The later T-90's from the CJ5 on (I think...) had a taller axle gears for highway cruising, so they made the first gear in the transmission lower to compensate for getting started from a stop. These are T90-C transmissions. The cases are the same, just different guts.
It's a common swap, I did this to Barnacle Will. I don't remember the ratios now, but it's as simple as swapping out the cluster gear and first gear when you do the rebuild. If you are buying gears anyway, it's a no-brainer if you want a lower first for crawling around off road. It made a big difference on B'Will.

The wear in yours doesn't seem like a big deal to me if you just want to run it for now. Unless there are chipped or missing teeth, I'd just run it and see what it's like. You may find other issues like second gear popping out, etc that will tell you more about needing to rebuild it or not.
 
The later T-90's from the CJ5 on (I think...) had a taller axle gears for highway cruising, so they made the first gear in the transmission lower to compensate for getting started from a stop. These are T90-C transmissions. The cases are the same, just different guts.
It's a common swap, I did this to Barnacle Will. I don't remember the ratios now, but it's as simple as swapping out the cluster gear and first gear when you do the rebuild. If you are buying gears anyway, it's a no-brainer if you want a lower first for crawling around off road. It made a big difference on B'Will.

The wear in yours doesn't seem like a big deal to me if you just want to run it for now. Unless there are chipped or missing teeth, I'd just run it and see what it's like. You may find other issues like second gear popping out, etc that will tell you more about needing to rebuild it or not.
Thank! Sounds like the way to go. Especially with the 7.5×16 tires.
Here's those ratios:
Screenshot_20230216_095151_Chrome.jpg
 
Time for some catching up here.

About six weeks ago I took Harry on his first drive in long, long time. Thirteen years minimum, probably more like 20. I posted about it here.

So the main concern from the first drive was a noisy clutch. Quiet when engaged, shifting ok, but a metallic scraping/rattle when the pedal was depressed. Got a great tip from someone here on the forum and all it took were two little metal clips to solve the problem.
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There should be three of them. One per finger. They connect the pressure plate to the finger and dampen vibration. My clutch was missing two clips, which was probably worse than missing all of them. I found a guy near me that had an old pressure plate with clips and was able to install them through the inspection port, avoiding a lot of hard, dirty work dropping the transmission and transfer case. Then I adijusted the free pedal, and life is good. Or it was for a minute....

First test drive with the clutch fixed, and i made it 300 ft from tge garage when i heard a huge clang and violent rattling from under the hood. I slammed the brakes on, killed the engine, and prepared for the worst as i opened the hood. I found the fan blade had spun off the pump shaft and richoched around inside tge shround. Thankfully my brand new radiator wasn't punctured, although some of the fins were crushed. I don't know how much the damage will refuce the efficiency of the radiator, or whether i should try snd straighten the fins. Thoughts?
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The new pump is getting ordered tonight.
Decided its time yo repair the e-brake. Its been frozen since i got it. With the original floor stater switch, it makes restarts on a hill interesting with no e-brake. Got the crusty old cable out, everything else seems ok, including the shoes and drum. A new cable will go on the order tonight too. Who knows, maybe I'll get free shipping yet :)

Then I decided to remove a couple of things that make Harry unique. His rear mounted, hand operated winch is very unusual but needs to be rebuilt. I decided to remove it in the meantime. Six rusty 1/2" bolts had other ideas. The score is currently Dahdo 4, Harry 2. Sprayed the last two with PB blaster and we will resume tomorrow.
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The other thing unique is his dual spare carrier's. I plan on never using more than one spare carrier, so his driver side carrier got removed today. I swear, ever to.e i walk past that thing i bang my hip on it...no more! Based on the body filler and repair here, i think sombody caught more than their hip on this. More like a big rock wall.
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That's it till tomorrow, thanks for following.
 
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